1. Technical Field
This invention relates to refuse containers. More particularly, this invention relates to a device for adapting substantially rectangular refuse containers and the like to be manipulated by a robotic-type manipulator for substantially rotund objects.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Refuse collection is becoming increasingly mechanized. As little as ten years ago, laborers hoisted to their shoulders heavy steel cans filled with garbage and carried the containers to, and emptied the contents into, a truck parked at the curbside. This essentially manual system for transferring refuse from the customers' containers to the collection truck has rapidly become uneconomical in nations having rising wage rates and falling costs of automation.
Automated refuse collection systems are improving the efficiency of refuse collection and reducing the need for highly paid manual refuse collectors. In both semi-automated and fully automated refuse collection systems the entire customer base is provided with identical refuse containers, and the collection trucks are equipped with lifting mechanisms for automatically emptying such containers.
In a semi-automated refuse collection system, the filled refuse containers must be manually positioned on the lifting mechanism on the truck. The containers are substantially rectangular and have a lifting receptacle located in one of the flat vertical walls of the container. The mechanism engages and locks into the lifting receptacle of a container, then lifts the container until it is inverted over the truck, emptying the contents into the truck. The container is then lowered and manually disengaged from the lifting mechanism, and manually returned to its original place.
Fully automated refuse collection systems eliminate the need for manual movement of the container to and from the truck. The trucks of fully automated systems are equipped with lifting mechanisms which comprise a robotic-type manipulator disposed at the end of an articulated mechanical arm. Customers are required to place their containers at or near the curbside, where they can be reached by the manipulator. The truck is stopped near each container in turn. The driver operates the arm and manipulator to securely engage the container, then to lift and empty the container into the truck, and finally to replace the container in its former position. Fully automated collection systems require only one worker per truck, in contrast to the driver plus multiple laborers required by both manual and semi-automated systems.
Fully automated systems require that the customers' containers be readily handled by the robotic manipulators of the collection trucks. Such manipulators are typically designed to handle a single shape of container, usually cylindrical, frusto-conical or otherwise substantially rotund. While other shapes of containers can sometimes be handled by a manipulator for substantially rotund containers, such containers are often damaged by the imperfect junction between the manipulator and the container. There is also a significant risk that the container will slip from the grasp of the manipulator, strewing the contents along the curbside.
The rectangular containers of semi-automated refuse collection systems cannot be used in fully automated systems which require substantially rotund containers. Thus, many communities which converted to semi-automated systems cannot reap the benefits of a fully automated collection system without replacement of their existing rectangular containers with new rotund containers. The cost of such replacement is prohibitive for those less wealthy communities most in need of the savings offered by fully automated collection systems.